2010 ASBMB Award: Adrian Acuthan

Burnet Institute

Adrian Achuthan completed his Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree in 2001 at the University of Melbourne. He then undertook an Honours project under the supervision of Dr Glen Scholz in the Deptartment of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he investigated the role of lipopolysaccharide in macrophage adherence and spreading. His findings led to a first-author publication in Cellular Signaling. He graduated with first class Honours in 2003 and was subsequently awarded a Melbourne Research Scholarship to pursue his PhD studies in the same laboratory. The focus of his PhD studies was to investigate the role of M-CSF (macrophage-colony stimulating factor) in promoting macrophage immune functions such as cytokine secretion and phagocytosis. Using a genome-wide microarray approach, he identified a number of M-CSF regulated genes, including membrane fusion and vesicle trafficking SNARE family genes. He demonstrated that in primary mouse macrophages M-CSF induces serine phosphorylation of Syntaxin 7, a SNARE family protein, and leads to enhanced SNARE complex assembly. His findings from his PhD were published in Molecular and Cellular Biology. In 2007, he was awarded a prestigious Endeavour Research fellowship to work at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore, with Professor Wanjin Hong. During his six-month fellowship, he investigated the role of SNARE protein VAMP8 in host defence utilising VAMP8 knock-out mice. Upon his return to Australia, he rejoined his former lab for a short period before taking up a position at the Burnet Institute, Melbourne, with Professor Suzanne Crowe. He continued pursuing his interest in vesicle trafficking and membrane fusion in the context of HIV-infected macrophages. His ASBMB Fellowship provides him with an opportunity to present his current findings at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting, Anaheim, California.

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This page last modified: April 1, 2010.